Dear Editor: Yet another letter to the editor (Letters, Aug. 11) about sharing Alma Street in Palo Alto from an irate motorist. Janice Hough says she understands sharing the road, but in reality she only wants to share if cyclists are somewhere else. To be truthful, there is no sharing in the vehicle code. You have the right of way or you don’t.

In her example, the cyclist clearly has the right of way and is proceeding in a lawful manner. For this, he is assaulted by reckless drivers who can’t seem to see far enough ahead to see the cyclist. This sends them careening around the roadway to avoid him. This could be avoided by a couple of simple steps. First, drivers must pay attention to the road ahead. Alma has good straight sight lines and a cyclist can be seen from quite a distance. Second, motorists need to realize there is a second pedal near the throttle that can be used, along with a turn signal, to help with a safe lane change.

I also ride Central in the morning and Alma until I reach Charleston. The reason I chose this route is it is direct. It may surprise drivers, but we cyclists like to take direct routes when we need to get to a destination, like work. The writer mentioned the bike boulevard. They are all well and good. However the route to get to them from Mountain View, or to Mountain View, is circuitous at best. That also applies to Park, which is my favorite one into Palo Alto. Think of it this way. Imagine that the section of Alma didn’t exist for motorists between Charleston and San Antonio. That is the situation with Bryant and Park in Palo Alto.

The signs that Palo Alto needs to install on Alma are the newly approved “Bike use full lane,” not go somewhere else.

Ralph Durham,

Sunnyvale

Careful on Alma

Dear Editor: In “Sharing roads” (Letters, Aug. 11) the writer describes observing motorists “swerve out of the right lane, barely avoiding collision with the cars to their left.”

Whether this occurred on El Camino Real, Alma Street or any multi-lane arterial is secondary to the risky, even reckless, driver behavior observed by the writer unless it was truly justified, for example to avoid hitting a child jumping out in front of traffic.

When the cause is a cyclist biking with the traffic, the swerving behavior indicates that the driver does not know how to safely pass a cyclist or some other reason such as “distracted driving” causing the motorist to fail to see the cyclist in time to slow down and safely pass in the left lane if not enough room exists within the right lane.

Alma Street can be challenging for cyclists and motorists alike — each need be extra cautious of the other. Sharrows (“share the lane” signage) exist for a mere two blocks north of the Homer Avenue tunnel in downtown Palo Alto, while bike lanes exist north of Lytton Avenue. Unfortunately, neither exist south of the Homer tunnel all the way to the Mountain View border, where bike lanes begin.

Please, all road users, exercise caution on Alma Street as well as on all other roads.

Irvin Dawid,

Palo Alto

Redwood City Shakespeare

Dear Editor: The San Francisco Shakespeare Festival brought its production of “Henry V” to Redwood City. It is free and is under the beautiful tall trees on the old Sequoia High School campus. People are invited to bring blankets and picnic lunches. The actors are believable as kings, dukes, generals and ordinary soldiers in medieval England and France. The songs are lively. The young children in the audience were laughing, picking up on the humor of the actors. I had boned up on the play “Henry V” before attending the Aug. 12 performance, which gave me greater appreciation of the performance.

The play continues on Saturdays, Aug. 18 and 25 at 7:30 p.m., and Sundays, Aug. 19 and 26 at 2 p.m. I would recommend “Henry V.” Don’t miss it.

Jane Nassar,

Menlo Park

Armageddon

Dear Editor: Isn’t it interesting that Israel talks of a razor sharp attack to destroy Iran’s short-term capability to produce a nuclear bomb, and Iran talks of responding in a manner to generate an Armageddon. Why is it that Israel was accused by human rights organizations and Arab countries of “disproportionate response” in its war against Hamas in Gaza and no one has taken the stand against Iran and its proclamation to start an Armageddon?

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